At What Age Should Children Have Access to Sexual Education

We use the term sex education to describe a section of the national curriculum to teach young children about sex. Sex education is not to just educate our children about sex; it is also used to educate them about sexual health. All too often we hear of children becoming pregnant, catching dreadful sexual diseases and so forth. Perhaps, if the sex education and the lessons about sexual health were better, such things would not occur.

There is sex education in the majority of schools all over the world, but why is it still controversial in nature? It could be that some parents and higher authorities believe that it corrupts the innocence of young children. With sex and violence covered by the media every day, surely sex education is just a drop of water in a very large ocean of troubles. Many parents have no problems letting their children see violent movies and news coverage, but refuse to allow their children to get a degree of sex education.

Sex education and learning about sexual health isn't about teaching your children to have sex; it is about teaching your children to have sex safely and to avoid many of the pitfalls that can occur from it. Some controversy is at what age should good sexual health be taught to children? Should it be at primary school level (4/5) or should it be when they go into the higher schools at 11/12 years of age?

The amount of detail that the sex educators can go into is also a controversial point. Should it just be about informing the children where babies come from, or should it go into warts and all. The topics that are covered in sex education are also up for debate, especially in the US. Should the topics include sexuality, homosexuality, masturbation, safe sex and ethics? No matter what any school provides as sex education, there will always be those that fight for it and those that fight against it even existing.

In the US the argument for sex education rages on. Some of the arguments that are put forward are the following: Is sex education and the topics of sexual health actually beneficial or is it detrimental to the children, and whether the use of birth control such as oral contraceptives and condoms should be discussed.

Some countries where the sex education is a little more conservative show startling results. In the UK, sex education is widely thought to not be as good as should be. It is in the UK that teenage pregnancies are at all time high. The UK actually has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in all of Europe. The UK also has a very high incidence rate of sexually transmitted diseases, not only in teenagers, but also in adults.

There are some reports of comprehensive sex education detailing everything about sexual health and other issues do have good results on teenagers. It may also greatly reduce the amount of teenage pregnancies across the board.

Whatever your take on sexual health and sex education in schools, children should know the risks and the downfalls of having unprotected sex. It is not just the children that need educating in the ways of sexual health, but also the parents. It is time for change around the world and sex education may just help to make that change.